


Witness

by kaige68



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Community: 1_million_words, Drabble Collection, M/M, word of the day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-01
Updated: 2013-07-31
Packaged: 2017-12-20 12:45:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 3,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/887426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaige68/pseuds/kaige68
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The premise of this is to do a story arc in drabbles based on the word of the day posted at 1_million_words each day for the month.  *crosses fingers*</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. #01

**Author's Note:**

> Point of view changes from Eames to Arthur each day/drabble.
> 
> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Intuitive_ (7/1/13).

The way Arthur can move in a dream is quite something. He is fluid, graceful, and intuitive. Everything he does has purpose, everything he uses becomes an extension of his person, including, no, **especially** , the way he uses the space.

Now I will tell you that it’s because he spends so much time testing the dreamscape. Checking and testing and running possibilities, both in and out of the dream. But there’s more. He’s not trying to look graceful, he’s probably trying for effortlessly efficient.

What I won’t say, is that what he lacks in imagination, he makes up in panache.


	2. #01

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He thinks I find him vexatious?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Vexatious_ (7/2/13).

_Vexatious?_ He thinks I find him vexatious? I don’t spend enough time thinking about Eames to be vexed by him. He would enjoy being thought of like that. But he’s just... Eames.

He’s the best at what he does, if you can afford him. And if you can afford Eames, you also need to find a way to pique his interest. Money alone won’t do it. He’s a quick thinker, and thorough, he’s an asset on a team. He also enjoys sarcasm and harmless pranks, most of them aimed at me.

Although now that you mention it, vexatious is accurate.


	3. #03

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur is overly rational.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Irrational_ (7/3/13).

He’d not ever be irrational. Arthur is overly rational. I am surprised that he doesn’t think me irrational, he is absolute.

I’ve seen him over-react only once, and he’d certainly been pushed to it, and still not irrational. He is calm, if angry. Yes, Arthur is an angry man, and yes, the idea makes me smile. It’s still a posh anger though, stylish and buttoned-up. Lovely to watch, normally. Especially when he has to fix a cockup that should never have happened. It is worth stopping and taking in the view when you can.

I’m told he smiles almost annually.


	4. #04

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That seems a pedantic term for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Independence_ (7/4/13).

That seems a pedantic term for him. Maybe it’s something he strives for, you’d have to ask him. But in this field, in any of the fields I know that he works in, he can’t work alone. He values his independance enough that he doesn’t align himself with one team, one broker, one fence. But he has a network, a list of people that he can trust to do their part of whatever job he’s working.

He also values having someone to show up. I don’t know that it’s necessary for him, more of a perk when he finds it.


	5. #05

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He called me what?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Supercilious_ (7/5/13).

He called me what? Well that’s the pot calling the kettle black, isn’t it? Pompous annoying little prig. All starch and haughty calling me supercilious? I’d love to take that stick out of his arse and shove something else up there. I’d rather enjoy that, actually. He’d enjoy it too

No, I never have. Do you believe he’d still be that _supercilious_ if I’d ever bent him over the duvet? He’d be spent, boneless, and begging for more. Constantly.

He’d look lovely like that, too. It might be worth wrestling with all of those buttons to see him fucked out.


	6. #06

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With structure, dreams are very stable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Mutable_ (7/6/13).

Dreams are not as mutable as you would think if set them up correctly. With structure, they are very stable. It can be a struggle to keep them unquestionable, but if you’re good, they’ll hold.

Well, Eames specific job is to change. To make himself malleable, not mutable. He has to hold steady as well.

To my knowledge, he’s never taught anyone the skill. I think he likes being the best at it, likes knowing that no one can equal him.

If sex with Eames is the price to pay for learning to forge, I’ll stick with Point, thank you.


	7. #07

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not something you can teach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Nurture_ (7/7/13).

You can’t teach forging. A person either has the ability or they don’t. If you find it you can certainly nurture it. Or I suppose you can. I don’t believe I ever have. Arthur’s probably right about that.

I don’t suppose he’s all that nurturing either when it comes to teaching other people to run point. He was gallant in teaching someone the finer points of dreamscape recently, but he most definitely didn’t teach her point.

It may not have been my finest moment, but I do prefer to keep Arthur’s attention focused on me. He is fetching when flustered.


	8. #08

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some forges are better than others.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Sprechgesang_ (7/8/13).

Eames has a specific forge, well it’s such an amalgam of people that it is probably more of an original, but I’ve only seen him use her to annoy me. She doesn’t quite sing, she doesn’t quite talk, and she makes remarks about my grammar.

No, that doesn’t bother me. Eames tries to annoy me in some way or another, I would call him method actor, but it is a consistent point whatever form he takes.

He has different characters for different tasks. Some attempt seduction, intimidate, bolster, condescend, and some, like _Vera_ get shot on sight for their sprechgesang.


	9. #09

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s a challenge to out think Arthur.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Obtuse_ (7/9/13).

Oh, he is assuredly not obtuse. I don’t think I’d even tell him he was. No one who knows him would believe that. I simply enjoy out-thinking him. It’s a challenge to out think Arthur.

We work better together because we compete, because of the different paths our minds take to get to a result. He’s analytical. Step by step. Factual. I’m a tad more artistic, creative. We do manage to get most everything covered that way.

Does he know you’re asking me questions about personal lives? Are you asking him these things as well?

Perhaps you’re the obtuse one.


	10. #10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I’m critical in general

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Pundit_ (7/10/13).

He called me a pundit? I suppose I am. I’m critical in general, and I certainly like Eames to think I’m judging him. I’ve just never thought he cared that I was.

Do I judge him... I’ve told you already, Eames is not someone I have or would have a personal relationship with. I have no basis or desire to be a pundit about his libido or sexual performance.

I presumed that you were posing similar questions to him. I don’t think he’d augment the truth to impress _you_.

We should bring this conversation back to dream-share, don’t you think?


	11. #11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Extraction is simple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Abstruse_ (7/11/13).

Extraction is simple. Bring someone under, start looking abstruse information. They’ve placed it somewhere, our job is to find it.

In the concept of the dream, the thing you’re looking for goes from a thought to a physical thing. It’s been concealed somewhere. We dig it out, read it, retain it.

Well that’s why we do what we do and why you don’t. Isn’t it?

We could take you under if you like. Show you what I mean.

No, I would not suggest trying to extract from Arthur. Slow painful death is not how you want to leave a dream.


	12. #12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Precarious_ (7/12/13).

If the dreamer knows what they are doing, nothing is precarious. It’s possible that if the dreamer is in a moving location, can feel bumps and turns, the dream will feel those as well.

If you were to dream things might be tenuous. Eames or I? No. Even if you begin to question it, the dream will be stable until you react and your subconscious begins to look for the source of the dream and remove it. When that happens, the dream fails.

That’s what Eames would have meant. My subconscious would recognize a dream and would torture before killing.


	13. #13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You know you want to

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Retire_ (7/13/13).

Come now. You know you want to try it. You want to see what all the fuss is about. I know. You want to know why we do what we do. You want to experience how addictive creation can be. What it is like to slow down time and do all the things you’ve ever wanted to do. All the things you imagined and hadn’t thought possible.

We can do it. We can show you. An Escher sketch come to life. That sweet thing from the steno-pool. All possible.

Arthur’s just next door. Come retire with us for a bit.


	14. #14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Projections

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Ploce_ (7/14/13).

We call them projections.

Sit still, it’s like any other IV.

Projections. They are your mind’s way of filling the space, Eames and I have learned to dream without them. It will be my dream, my landscape. But you will populate it with your projections. Projections of your imagination. They help you take in the space, they are your mind’s way of understanding, of seeing more. What you’re feeling, nerves, anger, confusion is also projected by them into the dream. Any chaos will be your projections' doing.

Eames, if you say _ploce_ one more time, I will dream much bigger.


	15. #15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Projections

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Phlegmatic_ (7/15/13).

You’re doing quite well. Phlegmatic, keeps the dream stable. Arthur will appreciate that. Where ever he is.

No, there is no centralized location for arrivals. That would make it much more difficult to do what we do. Imagine everyone arriving one place all at once? It would be obvious that it was a choreographed dream.

Let’s start you off with something smaller, eh? Let’s have a seat, find a table you’d like to sit at.

Anywhere, anywhere at all.

Make one. Anything you like.

It will hold if you believe it will hold. If you don’t believe it then there-


	16. #16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Assuage_ (7/16/13).

You’re doing fine. We’ve already been here longer than last time. Here, have a seat.

No, I made it. Eames tried to rush things, it’s easier if you don’t think about it. Coffee?

See.

We’ll stay for a few minutes. Eames will be here shortly. He can show you a forge, and then when you think you can manage we’ll let you try building a dream yourself.

No, it’s not difficult. Once you know, are consciously aware that you are dreaming and that things are possible, you will see the difference.

You’ll see, you’ll be able to build for... ever.


	17. #17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://1-million-words.livejournal.com/)**1_million_words** Word of the Day _Pedantic_ (7/17/13).

You need to take a page from Arthur’s book and learn to be picayune and pedantic. You need to focus on details, almost exclusively on details. They are the things that will throw off your mind if you don’t have them right. They will throw off the other people sharing the dream, and will rile the projections the most.

You also want to be slow with your changes, ease your incorrect Greek Doric columns into Roman Doric.

Yes, exactly like that. Specific, slow, and steady as she goes. Lovely, darling. Very, very lovely.

Yes, quite an addictive thrill, isn’t it?


	18. #18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The building isn’t enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for 1_million_words Word of the Day Badinage (7/18/13).

The building isn’t enough. Though this is very good for a beginner.

To lose projections you need to become more comfortable. Comfortable with the people in the dream with you, comfortable with your setting, with the landscape. 

No, you don’t need to trust anyone. Or the environment. 

Exactly. If you bantered with the dreamers it would be simpler.

Badinage? Really, Eames? But you see, you don’t actually have to get along, or _trust_ who you’re with. You just have to be comfortable.

If I had to trust Eames, or be _friendly_ , I’d have projections climbing over themselves to end him.


	19. #19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for 1_million_words word of the day 7/19/13 - _Umbrage_

No. I’m certain that Arthur was only demonstrating what he was saying. He would never take umbrage against something I said. Would you, darling?

I’m certain that I’m laughing with you, not at you.

But yes, why don’t we take you down one more time. We can separate you a little more if we go into another dream from there. And it will give you more time to try more things there.

That’s it precisely, and why it feels as though you’ve known us for ages, not just met us this morning. One more go, and you’ll never forget us!


	20. #20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I think it would be best to see what you can do yourself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for 1_million_words Word of the Day Bivouac (7/20/13).

I think it would be best to see what you can do yourself. Without influence from Eames or me. We’ll find a place-

Yes, Eames, we’ll bivouac. We’ll set up camp someplace here where we won’t have much interaction with the few projections you do have. You just build and create.

It’s difficult, but it might be worth your while to even work up your own PASIV and go deeper by yourself. So you can see what you can to unencumbered. It’s more difficult to keep a dream stable, but with the right mix of somnacin we’ve seen it work.


	21. #21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Have a seat and eat something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for 1_million_words Word of the Day Repast (7/21/13).

Have a seat and eat something. We’ll wait just a bit longer.

Because the few projections here are eating. You’re reporter must be famished. An indulgent repast will satisfy them. Dream up that red chowder you love so much. Perhaps that whisky you always buy at the duty-free.

Just a few minutes, and then I shall whisk you away to the top of the tallest building in all the land. I’ll take you in my arms, look deep into your eyes, and we’ll plunge to our deaths like tragic romantic heroes.

HA! I do adore that look on your face!


	22. 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for 1_million_words WotD 7/22/13 - Finagle

Do not EVER, take my hand and run off the roof like that. I mean it Eames!

We’ve got attention. Projections at your five. We have-

Nnnn. Really? Really? Just … fine. It’s done, and you’re right, we’ve lost them. 

Fine. You were right. Mark the day in your book. It might not happen again.

He does have an unhealthy interest in our personal lives. What did you prod him into? How did you finagle his projections smiling like that?

They are smiling very much like you do. It’s disconcerting, _Darling_.

I’d much rather imagine their looks if I eviscerated you.


	23. #23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for 1_million_words WotD 7/23/13 - Thaumaturgy

I am a practitioner of thaumaturgy! It is a wonder he has fallen for all of this. It’s a wonder he thought we would honestly take the interview. It is a wonder that he believed a word either of us said. Wondrous that he trusted us enough to use the PASIV with us to begin with. Beyond wondrous that he went under with us a number of times. 

I am magical. I am Arthur, don’t think you could have done without me, he never would have trusted you as much alone. _We_ are magical. You can’t be thaumaturgical without me.


	24. #24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for 1_million_words Word of the Day Canorous (7/24/13).

The reporter was snoring. It didn’t happen often with dreamscape workers. But this, the reporter on his own hotel bed, it sounded almost canorous to Arthur. 

He packed the PASIV, watched as Eames measured the mostly illegal drug into a syringe. Then Eames injected the liquid into the reporter. 

The reporter was good, was a dog with a bone type. But Arthur had done his research. The man had a small alcohol problem in his twenties, and a small drug problem in his thirties, but he’d been in rehab, and kicked it. At least until he developed insomnia. Arthur smiled.


	25. #25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for 1_million_words WOTD 7/25/13 - Tenebrous

Eames sat at the desk in the room. He removed several pages from the reporter’s notebook, and he studied the man’s tenebrous note taking. It was simple shorthand, which was a relief. The man had been writing in his own lap under the table while he’d been interviewing them. Eames was afraid the notes would be coded. Shorthand was straightforward.

He started forging the ‘handwriting’, making notes with information from an extraction that he’d worked the week before. He might get a bonus from them.

He watched Arthur wrap the reporter’s hands around somnacin bottles and used needles for fingerprints.


	26. #26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for 1_million_words WOTD 7/26/13 - Capacious

They left the hotel room, wiping down very few surfaces, they had gone in with a plan after all.

Arthur and Eames left the reporter unconscious. They left a clear habit of drug use to combat insomnia. They left him tucked into his bed, the way he would have gone to sleep that night. They left him in a coma that would scramble his brain.

The world felt capacious again. No longer limited by secrets getting out. No longer concerned about news stories. Other people were tracking down the leak. 

Arthur and Eames went on to their own hotel room.


	27. #27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for WotD @ 1_milion_words 7/27/13 - Susurrus

_There._ Eames smiled and caught Arthur’s suit jacket as he reveled in the susurrus noise that the fabric of Arthur’s shirtsleeves made against the lining of the coat. Beautiful whisper. That was Eames’s favorite sound in the world.

It only happened when the job was done. It only happened alone together. And it only happened because Eames was trusted. 

He’d seen Arthur take of his jacket and roll up his sleeves. But he was usually speaking or listening to some else, the sound was lost among other louder things. Which was fine, Eames liked that the sound was his alone.


	28. #28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for Word of the Day 7/28/13 - Capitulate

This was always the best part, and Arthur was sure that Eames would agree with him on this one thing. 

It wasn’t so much a game that they played. Work was work for Arthur. They had to keep a professional demeanor. The smallest distraction could ruin a job. Arthur was thankful that Eames got that immediately. 

Despite the way he might come across, Eames was always professional. If he wasn’t, Arthur would never have said yes after their second job together. Wouldn’t have taken Eames to a hotel in another country. Would never have capitulated to what even Arthur wanted.


	29. #29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for 1_million_words Word of the Day Pugnacious (7/29/13).

“I expected him to be… pugnacious.” Eames was sprawled across Arthur, chin resting on a bare stomach. “Investigative journalist, my arse.” He shrugged as well as he could.

“He believed whatever he was told before us.” Arthur was done with the reporter and the situation.

“Who believes without experiencing it? What tosser just accepts shared dreaming from a conversation? Are we sure he was a threat? We could have told him somnacin came from unicorns, and the PASIV was made by fairies-“

Arthur tugged at his hair, tried to pull him further up the bed. “Could we not argue now?”


	30. 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for 1_million_words Word of the Day Plethora (7/30/13).

The reporter was n0t a complete idiot. He’d told his editor that he was meeting with two _nefarious criminals_ , and to check in on him if he hadn’t called by eleven.

However, he was an idiot in that a reporter should know that _nefarious criminal_ was redundant, and by sending the message via e-mail instead of telling the man in person or hand-writing it. Arthur had figured out the e-mail password on the second try.

He smiled as he and Eames watched the plethora of flashing lights from the responding emergency vehicles. They lit the street nicely. Almost like fireworks.


	31. #31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for 1_million_words Word of the Day Propitioius (7/31/13). Final installment.

By breakfast two days after the reporter had been taken out the hotel staff was vibrating with propitious gossip. Both Eames and Arthur were dressed like casual tourists, looking on eagerly as they checked out before eating while the desk clerk filled them in without seeming like she was spreading rumors.

“The poor man was apparently addicted to sleep aids. Insomnia.” She shook her head with a degree of sadness in her eyes. “The poor guy overdosed himself into a coma.”

“No!” Eames sounded genuinely shocked.

“I hope this won’t keep you from with us again.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has been reading! It is hugely appreciated. :)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Vera](https://archiveofourown.org/works/894430) by [kaige68](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaige68/pseuds/kaige68)




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